Time-stamp Your Document Today!!!

Time-stamp Your Document Today!!!

Data authentication and data integrity are at the core of digital signature technology. While guaranteeing non-repudiation and confidentiality, the digital signature secures online transactions through digitally signed documents. The entire online process has transferred the way business transactions or communications take place. However, it is very essential to maintain a time log for some processes, which are highly time-sensitive. This urgency or criticality is more common in the verticals like Defense, Government, Pharmaceutical, or BFSI (basically all service sectors). While bidding for online tenders floated by the government, submitting online IT forms, or signing critical reports, it is highly recommended to record a time stamp of the signature to make sure the entire process was executed before the due date. Therefore, to attain authenticity and proficiency in the signing process, some digital signature solutions allow users to stamp and verify the signing time of the signer.

Any digitally signed file can be time-stamped without any difficulties, irrespective of its size and format. Besides above-mentioned areas, the time-stamping process can be effectively used in e-Commerce services to prevent frauds and repudiation. Or it can be used by organizations to maintain accurate accounts update to prevent any alteration to final statements.

Especially, the government agencies can use this process in a scenario, which involves project approval, implementation, and maintenance, while maintaining daily reports for critical project. It is very ideal for 24x7 operations, involving varied people working on the same critical project. Therefore, it is very essential to maintain an honest audit trail, recording the signer’s name, report’s name and the time of signing.

Using time-stamping guarantees that the process occurred at a particular time. Time-stamping means stamping the time onto the electronic document. Time stamp can be a local time stamp, i.e. time from the local machine is stamped on the signature block, or it can be a third-party time stamping. In third-party time stamping the time is taken from the third-party servers and stamped in the signature block. Many eSignature laws have made it mandatory to have such third-party time stamping as a part of the signature to ensure time validity of electronically signed document.

A trusted third party, acting as a time-stamping authority, issues a trusted time-stamp. This is used to show the existence of certain data before a certain time. This can be applicable to government contracts, research data and medical records. This guarantees that the document owner cannot backdate the time stamps.

As the time-stamping process generates a hash from the file, and time-stamps the hash, initially a hash is calculated from the data. A hash varies from data to data; hence, any alteration to the original data will generate a different hash from the earlier one. However, one cannot calculate original data from the hash, preserving confidentiality of the data. Even the time stamping authority does not have access to the original data due to the same reason. This process allows anybody to verify the document integrity, and eliminate future repudiation.

Therefore the time-stamping process not only preserves data integrity and confidentiality, but also makes the processes authenticated and transparent. From government agencies to e-Commerce companies, and from pharmaceutical companies to BFSI, whichever is the application or requirement, digital signature solutions meet them with ease and simplicity.